Summer Kisses Read Online Free PDF Page A

the first place. Calling this an awkward moment would be putting it mildly. He looked toward the door, hoping somebody might enter and save them from themselves. “Parents stopping by later?”
    She shook her head. “They’re in New York. Busy people.”
    “Hmmm.”
    “They’re not too happy about the choices I’ve made,” she added.
    “I see. And what about Thomas? Will he be visiting any time soon?”
    She looked painfully self-conscious, making him wonder why he seemed so determined to make things more uncomfortable every time he opened his mouth. He was usually a man of few words and now he knew why.
    “Who told you about Thomas? I’m going to kill Chelsey when she returns—”
    “It was you,” he said. “You mentioned Thomas. You thought you were kissing Thomas when I set you in the back of my car.”
    She frowned. “I said his name?”
    He nodded.
    “I’ve heard of people talking in their sleep…but kissing in their sleep?” She sighed.
    “No worries. I would be lying if I pretended I didn’t thoroughly enjoy it—you know—the kiss.”
    The fluorescent lights reflected off her eyes and made them sparkle.
    They watched each other for a moment, sizing one another up before an irritating beep brought them back to the moment at hand.
    Jill squeezed her eyes shut and dug her fingers into the mattress.
    Moving to the side of the bed where Chelsey had been, Derrick reached over the side rail and took her hand in his. “It’s okay,” he said, although he wasn’t feeling okay, and she certainly didn’t look okay. It hadn’t been much over five minutes since her friends left. What the hell was going on ?
    With her eyes clamped shut and her teeth gritted, the veins in her neck and forehead looked ready to burst.
    His heart rate accelerated as he tried to think of something to say to comfort her and take her mind off of the pain. “Maybe we should do that breathing thing,” he said.
    She didn’t answer him, but her fingers squeezed tight about his hand, and damn, she had one powerful grip.
    The beeper on the monitor wouldn’t stop beeping. That worried him.
    Jill brought her knees to her chest, blankets and all.
    He leaned closer and rubbed her shoulder. “Is that helping?”
    Her eyes shot open, startling him. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she suddenly turned her head full circle and spit out pea soup. Instead, she reached out and grabbed a fistful of his shirt along with a little skin and said, “Get your baby out of me!”
    He might have laughed if he wasn’t bleeding and in pain and if she wasn’t pinning him with the scariest look he’d ever seen in his life, which was saying a lot considering his mom had been the queen of scary faces back in her day.
    In the blink of an eye, Jill Garrison had transformed from a sweet young lady into a woman possessed by the devil.
    “If you don’t do something,” she said, “I’m going to scream.”
    “I think we should breathe instead.”
    “I think you should—” Her face turned scarlet, and she scrunched her nose as if she was chewing on sourballs. And then she did exactly what she said she was going to do. She screamed, an ear-piercing sound that set his teeth on edge and made his brain hurt.
    Where the hell was everybody ?
    Before he could reach for the red emergency button, the door shot open and two nurses surrounded the bed.
    “Who are you?” one of the nurses asked him as she checked the monitor and IV hookup.
    “The father of the baby,” he said.
    Jill looked pitiful. Her head was bent back, her neck extended, and she had a white-knuckle hold of his arm, her fingernails clawing into flesh.
    The nurses exchanged glances before the one at the end of the bed shrugged, pulled up the sheets and did a quick examination. “Ring for the doctor,” she said. “This baby is coming, ready or not.”
    Derrick would have made a quick exit if Jill didn’t have a death grip on his arm. He was pretty sure his chest was already bleeding,